Title: Who writes a diary?

Lesson plan elaborated by: Magdalena Trysińska

Topic:

Who writes a diary? About the literary genre for everyone.

Target group:

8th‑grade students of an eight‑year primary school.

Core curriculum

I. Literary and cultural education.

1. Reading literary works. Student:

1) recognises literary genres: epic, lyric and drama; determines the characteristics of particular types and assigns the work to the appropriate type;

2) distinguishes epic, lyric and drama genres, including: a diary, comedy, epigram, sonnet, song, tren, ballad, epic, tragedy – and lists their basic features and indicates the genre characteristics of literary works read;

8) defines the aesthetic values of the literary texts being studied;

9) uses, in the interpretation of literary works, references to universal values related to social, national, religious and ethical attitudes and prioritises them;

11) uses in the interpretation of literary works the necessary contexts, eg biographical, historical, historical‑literary, cultural, philosophical, and social.

2. Receipt of cultural texts. Student:

1) searches for the necessary information in the text and cites relevant parts of journalistic, popular or scientific texts;

2) organises information depending on their function in the message;

4) recognises the differences between the fine literature and scientific literature, popular science, journalism and determines the functions of these types of writing;

2. Differentiation of language. Student:

7) understands the concept of style, recognizes colloquial, official, artistic, scientific and journalistic style

III. Creating statements.

1. Elements of rhetoric. Student:

1) functionally uses rhetorical means and understands their impact on the recipient;

7) agrees with other people's views or polemicizes with them, substantively justifying their own opinion;

2. Speaking and writing. Student:

4) performs a voice interpretation of texts read and delivered

IV. Self‑study. Student:

8) develops the ability to think critically and formulate opinions.

The general aim of education

The student get to know the diary as a literary form.

Key competences

• communication in the mother tongue;

• communication in foreign languages;

• learning to learn;

• cultural awareness and expression.

Learning outcomes

Student:

• recognises linguistic measures used in the journal and determines their functions in the text;

• indicates the characteristic features of the style of the text;

• defines the features of a literary journal;

• distinguishes facts from opinions.

Teaching methods / techniques

• problematic: directed conversation, discussion;

• programmed: using a computer and e‑textbook;

• practical: subject exercises.

Forms of work

• individual activity;

• collective activity;

• activity in pairs.

Lesson plan overview (Process)

Introduction

1. The teacher defines the purpose of the course, which is to get to know other form of a diary as a genre. The teacher gives students the criteria for success.

2. The teacher asks students to do, in pairs, task 1 in the abstract, the purpose of which is to discover various meanings of the word „diary” based on dictionary definitions.

Realization

1. The teacher gives the students glossaries of literary terms. The teacher asks them to find a definition of a word “diary”. Based on the definition from the dictionary of literary terms, students define the characteristics of the literary diary and compare it with those of the diaries in task 1.

Then the students verify the obtained information with the data contained in the abstract.

2. Students read an excerpt of Jerzy Pilch's diary and then they do the related tasks from an abstract.

- they pay attention to the emotions caused by reading the text;

- they find the stylistic devices used by the author; they determine which of them are used to express emotions – they justify their opinions;

- they search for statements in the text that describe facts and express opinions;

- they discuss the world of the internal experiences of the author;

- they specify the topics covered by the author in the cited excerpt.

3. Students read Paweł Rodak's popular science text on the personal diary. Then they do the related tasks in the abstract:

- they answer the question about the nature of the first diaries;

- they explain the form that the diaries took in the contemporary world;

- they are thinking about the title of P. Rodak’s text: “Między zapisem a literaturą” [Between a record and literature] – they wonder whether this is a correct term for a diary; they justify their opinions.

4. Students do the task from the abstract on the interactive sheet – they order the given genres according to the categories: non‑literary and literary genres. They should notice that the same genre can be both of non‑literary nature, e.g. a culinary blog, and literary nature, e.g. a blog where the author publishes his/her poems or stories.

5 . If there is enough time, the students share information about the books they know, which have the form of diaries or diaries run by young people.

Summary

1. At the end, the students verify their knowledge about the diary as a form of writing – they complete the note in the e‑textbook.

2. Students suggest their own order of keywords for the topic under discussion –a task in an abstract.

Homework

Choose a literary character from the school reading. Imagine that they keep a diary in which they describe their observations and reflections concerning the surrounding world. Propose five entries that could be contained in this diary. Write every day for five days.

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

Who writes a diary?

A diary is a literary genre of an autobiographical nature. It is kept as a systematic record of the author’s reflections. It may be of a private character or in the form of a literary work. The main feature of a daily is that it presents events that are written on a regular basis and in a chronological order. That is why a diary does not have a predetermined composition plan. The notes in a diary may be of a different nature. They can be limited to the pure registration of facts, or take the form of the extensive comments. Sometimes the diary combines the elements from different literary genres, and that makes it more related to the literature.

For a very long time the diaries have not been perceived as a literary form. Their authors wrote diaries for themselves, and did not think about publishing them in a book form. The Polish writers who wrote diaries were: Stanisław Brzozowski, Stefan Żeromski, Maria Dąbrowska, Zofia Nałkowska, Witold Gombrowicz. Their diaries were finally published and made available to the mass audience.